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September 30, 2010

Free Motion Quilting Designs: Pebbles and variations

Let's talk about pebbles. They are a big effect from a simple technique - stitching circles right next to one another. I like the look when I vary the size of the pebbles. Pebbles are time consuming to quilt, so practice on something small before you decide to do a queen size.

Want to mess with the design? How about stretching it out?

Or squaring it off?

The inside of a pebble is just waiting for you to put something inside it. I once saw a quilt with this wagon wheel quilting. It was so dynamic!

I thought these would look like rings but it's possible they look more like toilet seats.

Jingle bells? Soap bubbles? Either way, I like it.

Here I just inserted a line in the middle. I think they look like aspirin. I also doodled a beach ball pebble but forgot to take a picture of it.

Leah Day has some great pebble based designs, here, here, here and here.
If you've never stitched pebbles before, start by drawing them. Do this without lifting your pen - use a continuous line. Draw a circle. Now, starting from the edge of that circle, draw another circle right next to it. Now continue around that circle a bit until you can start a third circle nestled against the first two circles. And just go on that way, letting one circle lead to another, until your space is filled. You can do this. Try filling a page or two this way. It will get you used to figuring out where your next pebble will go.

In large or small doses, pebbles are a beautiful way to quilt. Take a look at these examples!

So you know what to do now - sketch some pebbles! I know my instructions aren't super detailed. First, I'm lazy. Second, it will serve you well to figure out how to draw the designs you think of with a continuous line. It's just pen and paper. Experiment! My quilting always improves when I draw the designs beforehand.

Your idea to journal the designs is great. Jacquie just posted a beautiful quilt she made and had quilted with gorgeous pebble quilting. If you haven't seen it already, go look! http://tallgrassprairiestudio.blogspot.com/2010/09/proposal-moon.html

Pebbling is one of the designs I've been wanting to learn. It's going to take drawing on more than 2 sheets of paper before I'll feel confident enough to FMQ. Thanks for sharing all the good tips with us!